A Day of Firsts

It was a day of firsts for me yesterday. It began at 5am at the airport when we had to deice the aircraft. It had snowed off and on Friday afternoon making it difficult for our afternoon flight to land. They had to "go missed" on at least two approaches before making a landing. It began snowing again shortly before our scheduled launch time on Saturday morning and the captain asked to be deiced. Deicing means we really have to be on button to get all the passengers and bags loaded early. Once they're on board and the door is shut, we have to pull a deicing tower around the plane and spray the wings off with a 50/50 mix of heated glycol and water. This mixture will melt the ice off to make it safe to fly. Any snow, ice, or frost on the aircraft surfaces will cause a interruption of the smooth flow of air over the wing, thereby destroying the lift.

After work, I headed down to Iowa City to spend the day with Kyle and the rest of the family. It was family weekend at the University of Iowa and Kyle's engineering department had a open house. We toured a few of the buildings around campus before having lunch in one of the engineering buildings. We didn't plan on going to the football game, but we decided to head over to Kinnick Stadium to see what action we could from the outside because I had never been to a game. Kyle ran into one of his floormates who wasn't going to use his ticket and didn't care to sell it. We were looking for another ticket in the student section, but we bought two more not in the student section. Mom, dad and Amanda went shopping in lieu of going to the game. Kyle and I found standing room on right endzone side of the field.

If you saw any of the highlights, it was a game to remember. Iowa jumped on top early, but then trailed #3 undefeated Penn State in the second and third quarters. Iowa began mounting a comeback late in the third. One bad call in the fourth quarter nearly cost Iowa the game. Iowa deflected a Penn State punt and ran into the kicker, but was called for the personal foul. However, both Iowa's offense and defense were able to overcame the ref's mistake. As time wound down, Iowa still trailed 21-23. With 6 ticks left on the clock, Iowa's field goal kicker came on to attempt a 31-yard field goal. It was good from the second it left his foot. Fans immediately rushed the field, not realizing that one second still remained on the clock. Iowa was charged a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on the kickoff, but it didn't matter. They kicked it onside and recovered for the win inspiring fans to rush the field again. It was an amazing sight; well worth enduring the freezing cold for several hours and not being able to feel my toes.

After the game, we went to Kyle's fraternity house to meet his brothers and their parents and take a look around the house. The five of us then went to Applebee's for dinner. I was about a half hour from Dubuque on my return trip, when a deer crossed in front of me from left to right. Even though I knew better than swerve, my reaction was to avoid the buck at all costs, because the cost of having my car fixed or replaced and hassle of being without my car would have been a pain in the neck. I missed hitting the deer, but lost control of my car due to speed at which I was traveling. I spun out and came to a rest in the median. I was able to back out without the aid of a tow truck. I checked for damage up the road under a street light but didn't find anything more than some dirt around the wheels and side of the car. I made it the rest of the way home safely.